Trump Voters: What Anime They Were Watching When Voting

It’s always interesting to jump into the mindset of a group of people in a historical moment. As the Trump administration approaches, what a better way to divide the country even more than to see who was watching what anime (on Crunchyroll), when he was elected.

It’s been a few months since the 2016 US Presidential Elections and we’re still feeling the ramifications of it. The world is being divided, Nazi’s are being normalised, and something going on between Putin and Trump? Personally, I’m surprised I didn’t see any doujinshi at Comiket a few weeks back.

Where did Trump win, and what anime were they watching?

A few weeks before the election last year, Crunchyroll posted a map showing the most popular anime by state, during the start of the fall season of anime. Based on the first episode, at the time of publication. Which gives us a great data point to see who was watching what when they voted for either Clinton or Trump. Or other, but for this exercise, we’ll just be looking at the only two that mattered.

I used the map that Miles from Crunchyroll made and overlayed with an electoral college winning map. You can see which state voted by their colours, but it’s hard to see exactly who was watching what where.

The above, poorly made, map shows one thing: The US has diverse tastes. And that more time needed to be spent in Photoshop. Looking past that at the raw data, seven different shows were the most watched in America in October 2017:

Drifters with 17 different states

Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans S2 with 2 different states

Keijo!!!!!!! with 9 different states

Haikyuu! S3 with 3 different states

Izetta: The Last Witch with 9 different states

Yuri on Ice! with 10 different states

Bungo Stray Dogs S2 with only one state, Arkansas

Drowning the stats

Drifters and Keijo were pretty evenly watched across the country, with only one state between each of them. Apparently, action and butts are bi-partisan. While both Yuri on Ice and Izetta were both favoured heavily by Trump voting states. With nearly 4x as many Trump states watching them versus Clinton states. Maybe the butts and Yuri on Ice have something in common among Republicans.

What is interesting is that no Democratic states had Gundam on their most watched, with all two states going to Trump. While Haikyuu had no Republican states watching, with all three states serving blue votes. Trump voters were taking a few cues on how geopolitics will play out in the future and how to combat it. They need to make sure Gjallarhorn is America First. And Clinton supporters are … er … watching great animation? Haikyuu is a great show, you should watch it.

Gotta make sure Gjallarhorn is America First and not on anyone else’s side!

Fun fact: When pitching this article to a few friends, I was told I should also use PornHub’s data as well. I didn’t learn by category for each state, but people who watched Yuri on Ice spent less time on PornHub than people who watched Drifters and Keijo. Take that information however you’d like.

This article wouldn’t have been written if it wasn’t thanks to the lovely Patrons over at Patreon! If you want to help fund more pieces like this, or the videos over on YouTube, you can do so there!